It wasn’t even about England going down in flames chasing a world-record goal. Instead, India beat them completely, exhaustively and humiliatingly.
England were so bad in being demolished for 122 to lose this third Test by a whopping 434 runs that the last two days have been virtually indistinguishable from the darkest times at the end of the Joe Root regime that led to the birth of Bazball.
This was a more complete rout than the three heavy defeats on changing pitches the last time England were here three years ago. More bruises even than anything suffered in that miserable run of one win in 17 in the dog days of Root’s captaincy.
Goodness, you have to go back to before the Second World War to find a beating as statistically terrible as this for England. Yes, despite all the good work of the last two years and the exciting start to this series in Hyderabad, this really was that bad.
“They are not hitting anything now,” Jasprit Bumrah said in Hindi at the microphone during England’s demise and it was certainly India who played all the expansive and exciting cricket here. India who beat England at their own game.
England collapsed with the bat again as they lost the third Test against India by 434 runs.
Yashasvi Jaiswal dominated the England bowlers with a double century, achieved before England’s declaration.
The India opener broke a world record equivalent of 12 sixes as he hit his second consecutive double century in just his seventh Test.
For Bazball, read Jaisball as a new superstar has emerged in the last two Tests in the form of 22-year-old Yashasvi Jaiswal, who smashed his second consecutive double century in just his seventh Test with a world record 12 sixes.
How talented the left-hander is and how fitting that he has surpassed Ben Stokes’ tally of 11 sixes in an innings, made in that famous double century in Cape Town, on his way to an unbeaten 214. Only Wasim Akram has ever hit to so many in one fell swoop.
Jaiswal’s extraordinary display of calculated brutality not only allowed India to score 430 for four, giving England an unwinnable 557, but gave them more than four sessions to seal the victory that gives them a 2-2 lead. 1 in the series with two to play. .
They barely needed one of them. It was Ben Duckett who said on Saturday when asked how many runs England could chase here “the more the merrier”. This team is about doing special things. You can have as many as you want and we will go get them.
Ben Duckett had said that “the more the merrier” for England in terms of run-chasing.
The opener, earlier in the Test, had played one of England’s best overseas innings, but was left out for four
If Duckett’s tongue was in his cheek, it was well hidden, but even this ultra-positive England team seemed to know defeat was inevitable as they began their second innings.
There was none of his usual dynamism and bravado. Instead they looked, like so many England teams in India before them, meek, hesitant and defeated before they began.
How long ago it seems that Duckett was playing one of the great overseas innings of an England batsman, sweeping, bowling and distracting India. He was now left without four thanks to the hesitation of belonging to a different era and the clever work of Dhruv Jurel.
It was the start of a calamitous fall in which Zak Crawley perhaps, unfortunately, gave Bumrah lbw (the doubt could easily have stayed in the batsman’s favour), Ollie Pope cut loosely to slip and Jonny Bairstow missed a sweep. Bairstow faced just seven balls in this Test, he looks totally out of form and is enduring a miserable series after a woeful World Cup.
Jonny Bairstow faced just seven balls in the Test and is enduring a miserable series so far
Stokes and Root did their best to stem the tide, batting conventionally rather than attempting the boldness that led to Root’s demise in particular in the first innings, but once they were gone the only question was whether England could take it to the last day. .
They couldn’t. It all ended when Ravichandran Ashwin, back from the family emergency that saw him return to Chennai on Friday, bowled Tom Hartley and then after a flurry of shots from Mark Wood, Ravindra Jadeja had the last word. The game was over in four days.
What a find Jaiswal is for India and what a journey he made, leaving his home in Utter Pradesh as a child to seek fame and fortune in cricket in Mumbai, where he lived in a tent at the famous Azad Maidan before he started making your name.
This was a double century of two halves, Jaiswal made 104 on the third day before retiring injured with back pain and returned yesterday to complete an even better double century than the one that set up India’s series win in Visakhapatnam.
Ravichandran Ashwin, who returned from the family emergency that led him to return to Chennai on Friday, returned to help India to victory.
Mark Wood was aggressive as always and reached 33 before being the last wicket to fall.
In the process, he became the third-youngest player to reach two Test double centuries, aged 22 years and 49 days, and inflicted on England the kind of serious punishment they had been more accustomed to inflicting on themselves in the past two years.
No one suffered more than Jimmy Anderson, who hit three consecutive sixes at the height of Jaiswal’s attack, the first swept, the second crashing over cover and the third gloriously in succession. At 41 years old, Anderson must ask himself what he has done to deserve this.
Jaiswal was not the only Indian batsman who made life miserable for England. Another hard-hitting star has emerged here in the burly Sarfaraz Khan, who smashed three sixes in his unbeaten 68.
How appropriate, too, that it was Sarfaraz who was with Jaiswal, his old friend from the Mumbai maidan, as he turned his double centenary and displayed his now-familiar ‘Jude Bellingham’ celebration, arms outstretched as he received the acclaim of a crowd. decent.
England could do little to stop Jaiswal, who at one point hit Jimmy Anderson for three consecutive sixes.
By the time Rohit Sharma put an end to England’s long-suffering India, thanks mainly to his new Virender Sehwag-like figure at the top of the order, he had hit 28 sixes in this Test alone and 48 in the series with two matches left. And no team has matched that.
It left England completely shocked and they have barely helped each other in this Test. They squandered a golden opportunity to overtake India when Root’s ill-timed reverse ramp led to the last eight wickets of England’s first innings falling for 95. What an undisciplined collapse that was. What a defining moment Root’s ramp seems to be in this series.
England have also been sloppy in the field, dropping four catches and not checking again yesterday when Hartley had an lbw appeal against Kuldeep Yadav rejected by Joel Wilson only to see it would have been overturned by technology.
Ben Stokes’ team must regroup and win the last two Tests if they are to win the series overall.
England could have had wickets three times if they had looked at the poor decisions in this match, but their use of DRS has been almost as bad as the rest of their cricket.
It seemed like Saturday had been the worst day of the Bazball era, but it turned out it wasn’t even the worst day of the weekend for England.
They are given huge credit for what they have done over the last two years, but they now face a monumental task in Ranchi and Dharamsala if they are to make anything of what is proving to be the toughest overseas task in Test cricket. .